Q. Did the tiebreaker in the first set decide the match, maybe?

MARAT SAFIN: Not really the match. But it would give me extra confidence. It would be easier for me to, you know, get closer to the winning situation at least. Because he started to play too confident after the first set.

When I was just all over the court, he was running pretty fast. And he had extra confidence, and I was a little bit not. I was missing opportunities left and right. That's why I think it was really important for me to get the tiebreak.

Q. So how do you feel now? Looking ahead at Wimbledon coming up and stuff, do you hope for more than a second round, I guess, at Roland Garros?

MARAT SAFIN: Yes, it's a little bit a pity, because I've been playing pretty well, actually. And with, I think, against a lot of players I will get through.

But the guy's playing really well. He is full of confidence. He knows how to play. He's serving well. He's returning every ball. He's fighting for every single point, so it's a little bit tough for a second round.

Just it's a little bit bad for me for second round to finish up the tournament like this.

Q. When you first saw him maybe five, six, eight, ten years ago, would you ever have imagined he would become this good?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, the kind of tennis that he had, it was very fast. He was playing the same way. And he was missing a lot. He was inexperienced.

Now with the time and the experience that he has, and he improves so many things in his tennis, so, of course when you see the person, you can see the potential. But you don't know. Especially with his tennis, the way he hits the ball. It was just really to see how far he can go.

For example, you say a guy would be to 95, a big server like Gulbis, you know for a fact that he's going to be a top 10 in a couple of years. Then you see Davydenko, and he's skinny guy, not really tall. And he plays pretty fast tennis. It's just too difficult to predict. It's very risky tennis, and it's very fast.

So if something happens and he's starting to lose confidence, the ball doesn't go anywhere. He just misses a couple of sets left and right. And that's it good tennis is gone.

Q. Have you started with the years to believe a little bit more about your chances at Wimbledon and on the grass?

MARAT SAFIN: I made quarterfinals, not many people really get to quarterfinals. But that was many years ago. A couple of years I missed because of the injury. And one year I was injured, so I didn't really have the chances.

Another couple of times I had a terrible tennis. I lost to Gonzalez a couple of years ago, and again 6-Love up and two breakpoints. So I've not really played that bad, just didn't have enough chances.

Looking forward, I think I can do well, especially since I'm starting to play much better.